T-Mobile Beats AT&T and Verizon in 4G and 3G Speeds, Closes Gap in Coverage [Charts]

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Posted February 2, 2016 at 7:16pm by iClarified

T-Mobile tops OpenSignal's State of Mobile Networks: USA report for February 2016, besting AT&T and Verizon in both 3G and 4G network speed. Additionally, the company's coverage reached 81% in the fourth quarter. It now nearly matches AT&T in LTE availability and is closing the gap with Verizon.

According to our measurements, T-Mobile is delivering on Legere's boasts. In the fourth quarter, T-Mobile had an LTE time-coverage metric of 81%, which means its 4G customers were able to see an LTE signal 81% of the time in our tests (for more information on time coverage see our methodology page). T-Mobile's recent improvements now put it a little more than a percentage point away from matching AT&T in LTE network availability and helped it close the bigger gap between itself and Verizon. Sprint brought up the rear with a time coverage of 70%.

T-Mobile Beats AT&T and Verizon in 4G and 3G Speeds, Closes Gap in Coverage [Charts]

T-Mobile's 3G speeds are way faster than its competition and it just edged out Verizon as the fastest 4G network.

In past reports, T-Mobile has bested all operators in speed, but in the fourth quarter T-Mobile and Verizon were almost evenly matched. T-Mobile's 12.3 Mbps LTE average just barely edged out Verizon’s average of 12 Mbps, making it a statistical tie (AT&T and Sprint didn’t even come close). We delved deeper into our data to compare LTE speeds in the eleven biggest metro areas and found Verizon and T-Mobile battling out just as intensely on the local level. T-Mobile won the contest in four markets and Verizon won it in three, while three cities were statistical draws between the two (the 11th market, Houston, was a statistical tie between all four nationwide operators).

Notably, OpenSignal reports that United States is falling behind globally in LTE speed. Many countries now offer a consistent 20 Mbps or faster connections; however, in the US the average is 9.9 Mbps. That's the same as Argentina, a country that just got LTE a year ago.

Take a look at the charts below or hit the link for more details...

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Jim Crusan - February 4, 2016 at 10:28am

Last time I went on a cross country trip, anytime I lost TMO signal, the phone automatically went to AT&T's network. So your never without some kind of signal. I believe that agreement between the two is still in effect.

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reynagacar - February 3, 2016 at 1:37pm

YouTube is accusing T-Mobile of interfering with its video traffic and delivering media to users at a lower quality, reports the WSJ.

Jan D. - February 3, 2016 at 3:52am

They should fix it in Puerto Rico. T-Mobile needs better signal here.

gamerscul9870 - February 2, 2016 at 10:08pm

I'm on tmobile and anywhere ai go in Texas, I can't lose a single signal bar.

qba - February 2, 2016 at 9:34pm

Whatever, this is not accurate but I know for sure that Sprint needs to go out of business .thank you

Dan - February 2, 2016 at 8:46pm

T-Mobile has a long way to go to stand besides AT&T and Verizon. I've tried that 7 day ride along thing T-Mobile offers and yes at my house the speeds are great but once I go a bit further from the city it's just OUT OF SERVICE

Lacey - February 3, 2016 at 4:56pm

Not just with tmo, it happens to any carriers. That's the reason people are jumping ships back and forth because of commercial.

ARMSTRONG - February 2, 2016 at 8:23pm

I would personally never want to be with T-mobile because their services are not as good as att and version . Tried their service for about a week and switched back to att.

stevenlacross - February 2, 2016 at 7:43pm

What about lte coverage and data speeds?

gamerscul9870 - February 2, 2016 at 10:07pm

Read the article. It flat out days it.

stevenlacross - February 3, 2016 at 4:29am

No, it says 4g, not lte, there's a difference, you need to learn

gamerscul9870 - February 3, 2016 at 5:28am

Great irony!

NO SIGNAL T-MOBILE - February 2, 2016 at 7:28pm

The problem with t-mobile is no SIGNAL!!! Means NO SERVICE!!! No calls no text no data nothing!!! Verizon and AT&T have more SIGNAL everywhere!!!!

Jon2314 - February 3, 2016 at 12:58am

Are you still in 2013? Because I keep driving thru the country and today's T-Mobile coverage is way better than the past. So go around an get updated.

ChiChi - February 3, 2016 at 2:23am

@Jon2314: You are the one that needed an update on your delusion on T-Mobile network signal. I am on AT&T and my girlfriend is on T-Mobile. The 3 times we went on a cross-country road trip, LAST YEAR, she spent more than half or our trip with no cellular signal. Yes she gets a little faster data speeds whenever she have signal but to her it was frustrating to be offline most of time. She sticks with them because of the great company discount she is getting from work and her signal is fine here at our home area. If and when T-Mobile UPDATED their network as expansive as AT&T and Verizon I would consider switching to them but for now I will stick with what I have.

Lacey - February 3, 2016 at 5:01pm

Because you live in the area without or marginal coverage, it doesn't mean they are not getting better in general. At my work place, I have barely have 2 bars lte last year but now I have full bars with my same phone and same spot.

gamerscul9870 - February 3, 2016 at 5:43pm

Don't forget it!